Late last year there was a lot of positive buzz about Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. With faith in From Software at an all-time high, many players found themselves loving a new genre. This put Bandai Namco’s other mech game, Synduality Echo of Ada, in a good spot. That being said, after having a chance to experience Synduality Echo of Ada, is it worth putting your faith in?
Synduality Echo of Ada starts with an interesting introduction to the world, and current situation. It was very reminiscent of Helldivers 2, just with more of a Japanese flare. Unsurprisingly, the unique characters captured my interest almost immediately. I imagine those familiar with the anime, manga, or light novel will get a bit more from it, but it adequately sets the stage for the main conflict.
Cool Kids like Cute Bunnies
Following that is a brief tutorial explaining the core mechanics. Essentially it plays like a third person shooter, just with a mech instead of a person. Low-tier enemies don’t put up much of a fight, though there is an evasive dodge, jump, and other forms of movement to gain the upper hand if you need it. Collecting resources was simple, though doing so put you in harms way. It ultimately concluded with an introduction to acid rain, an annoying mechanic that will passively damage your mech until you find safety, or it stops. After this it’s time to explore a real mission.
Based off what I saw, stages essentially boil down to hunting down others to collect their loot, or trying to obtain scavenge valuable resources without losing them. I’d estimate there were maybe four, or five hunters, with a handful of enemies. It was enough where I saw frequent action, but not enough where I was constantly fearful for my life.
I imagine long term engagements will be far more tactical. People lying in wait at specific points, to some threats being so imposing death is assured. It shows potential, as does the initial look at craftable parts.
The main gameplay loop is rather simple. Head out in the world, collect resources, and extract with them to build better parts/remodel your base. Failing to extract, either due to dying, or running out of time, results in all held resources being lost. Using said materials players can craft a wide variety of weapons, parts, and more. Many of the available options looked like those from the aforementioned anime, Synduality: Noir, offering distinct positive, and negative benefits.
Even if the basic idea has potential, it’s a rather rough experience. Certain elements, such as movement, have a ways to go. It also doesn’t help that gameplay wasn’t particularly notable. The monsters I faced were largely non-threats that I made quick work of. Even fighting other mechs felt more like luck.
Ignoring situations where luck isn’t on your side, there is a lot of potential for human players to make this very difficult. I fully understand this is part of the appeal, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it resulted in an experience similar to Mindjack. For those unfamiliar, it was a shooter that featured an invasion mechanic like Souls games. What ended up happening is invaders would appear at opportune times, ensuring the other person was miserable. It quickly killed the smaller player base as many people refused to deal with it.
Given all progress hinges on successfully extracting, and using said resources to build better gear that you can potentially lose, it’s going to naturally cater to more of a niche. I absolutely see there being potential, though the hardest part of evaluating any work in progress is guessing how many performance, and connection issues end up being corrected. Not to mention the human factor, which is an unpredictable element. Still, what we saw, and the vibrant locations we explored left us hopeful this becomes something bigger in the future.
Editor’s Note: Synduality Echo of Ada preview is based off the closed beta ran on a PS5.
